Saturday, March 14, 2015

Viral Justice!

I just had to share this with our class, especially after all of the talk we've had about anti-vaccination. I thought it was especially fitting given the experiences that Dr. Bob has had in court as well.

A German biologist by the name of Stefan Lanka made a pledge in 2011 that anyone who could prove that measles is a virus rather than a psychosomatic illness (which is what he believes it is). He promised to pay 100,000 euros to anyone who could prove that measles is a virus.

In response, Dr. David Bardens sent Stefan Lanka six different scientific studies demonstrating that measles is, in fact, a virus (shocker!). While Lanka no longer wants to uphold his end of the deal, a German court ruled that Lanka, a stark anti-vaccination advocate himself, must pay Dr. Bardens this amount because of the conclusive proof that measles is a virus.

BBC points out that this court case has arisen in the wake of the largest measles outbreak in Germany in years. Additionally, in 2014, there were 22,000 cases of measles in Europe, indicating the need for increased vaccination and increased attention from the World Health Organization.

Let that be a lesson to all the skeptics out there -- measles is real, and it is infecting thousands of people worldwide! Let's stop spending time on trivialities and rather work on vaccination campaigns to actually protect people from illness.